All aboard the Negawatt Express … but where are we really headed?
Better late than never (perhaps?) today I post a few thoughts about the AEMC’s proposed draft rule change for the incorporation of NegaWatts into centralized dispatch.
‘Duck Curve’ delivers declining Minimum Demand levels in South Australia
An email alert from NEMwatch (noting Scheduled Demand under 500MW in South Australia today) distracts us, and prompts us to dig a little deeper at the longer-term trend.
Lessons learnt in bringing new wind and solar to commercial operations stage
Our guest author Maria Cahill, offers insights and details lessons learnt over the past two years since moving to Melbourne from the UK to set up K2 Management’s Australian office.
A day in the life of a large-scale Solar Farm in the NEM –a Case Study of Ross River Solar Farm on Thursday 10th October 2019
Thursday 10th October 2019 presented another day of many negative price events in the QLD region. In this Case Study (prepared for dual purposes) we look at how one particular solar farm operated through this period – Ross River Solar Farm.
How Retailers Use Contracts to Hedge Customers
Guest author, Warwick Forster, provides an explanation of some of the common ways that retailers hedge their risk exposure in the National Electricity Market
Investments in increasing the flexibility of Coal-Fired Power
Some operations at Stanwell Power Station unit 1 in the past couple weeks caught our attention, and are presented as a useful illustration of some concepts related to flexibility of power generators (in this case, coal-fired power).
Some observations about Storage
Last minute complications mean that I cannot speak at today’s “Queensland Smart Energy Summit” (with Jonathon Dyson being an even better substitute). Here are some of the observations I would have liked to discuss with the audience there…
More on those negative prices – how do contracts affect bidding behaviour?
Guest author Allan O’Neil provides this handy explainer on how generators’ contract positions affect their bidding decisions and can make negative spot prices pay off, at least in the short term. Very useful for those readers not actively involved in wholesale trading in helping to understand why some conspiracy theories might not match reality.
Who’s responsible for those negative prices?
Rapidly growing solar PV output has been widely tagged as the cause of low and even negative prices in Queensland. But in any market it’s the behaviour of ALL participants that determines price outcomes. Guest author Allan O’Neil takes a closer look at recent NEM bidding.
Four quick thoughts, as the run of negative prices in Queensland continues…
The run of prices at $0/MWh and below is continuing in Queensland region this week as we pass into spring (many dispatch intervals today down as low as the Market Price Floor at -$1,000/MWh). This begs a few questions…
Longer-term trends of low (and high) dispatch prices in the NEM across all regions.
Our various dashboard views of the NEM (NEMwatch, ez2view and deSide) have been showing what’s seemed like increasing numbers of zero and negative prices in the NEM recently – particularly in QLD. Coupled with this we’ve seen various commentary on social media. Hence we took a more statistical look at what’s actually been changing…
ESOO Unboxing
Without resiling from last week’s criticism of how the headlines from AEMO’s 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities (ESOO) were communicated, it’d be churlish for me to fault the depth of…
ConfUSEd by the ESOO? You’re not alone.
I’d rather not add to the number of conspiracy theories in circulation, but I wonder if there’s a conspiracy to make understanding our electricity system in general, and its reliability…
AEMO releases its 2019 Electricity Statement of Opportunities – more tinder for the “energy wars” fire…
AEMO releases its Electricity Statement of Opportunities today, with an initial flurry of press coverage. Another reminder of heightened risk that the NEM is increasingly facing…
The Fuel Mix supporting the NEM is at the start of a massive transformation
Two pages taken from our Generator Report Card following several different requests from people who attended different events recently where the Report Card was discussed.
Transitional challenges require greatly enhanced analytical capability (exemplified in MT PASA Rule Change proposals, for instance)
A few additional thoughts about proposed changes to the MT PASA process, informed by our conclusions in Theme 14 within Part 2 of our Generator Report Card.
5 FAQs we’re asked about the Generator Report Card (for discussion at AIE this evening)
We’ve been invited by the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE) to speak this evening in Sydney about some of the lessons learnt in the process of completing our Generator Report Card. Here’s some context for those who are going to attend (in terms of answers to the 5 frequency asked questions) – and it might help others who are unable to attend, as well.
Initial thoughts and questions about last Friday’s under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain
Some brief data gathering and analysis, primarily because I could not resist the exploration, of what might have happened with the load shedding in the electricity grid across England, Wales and Scotland on Friday last week.
Calculated level of inertia in the South Australian grid, supplied by synchronous generation plant
Last week’s notable under-frequency load shedding in Great Britain following what appears to be the loss of two generation units in quick succession prompts me to publish some of the analysis of aggregate levels of inertia supplied by synchronous generators in South Australia as part of the Generator Report Card.
Heightened Risk an increasing feature in the NEM these days…
A full page article in the FinReview today quotes a number of people (including our work in the Generator Report Card) speaking about heightened risk in the NEM. Coincident with this, we see another instance of negative prices in South Australia (which has become increasingly common) but also something I can’t remember seeing before – an average negative price across the entire day so far!